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Tossin’ It Out There: What was YOUR Favorite Movie Growing Up?

This week the thought crossed my mind that tastes in movies change over time, they mature, they grow, etc.

So your taste in movies now is probably not what it was when you were a child. Even if it was, there’s probably any number of movies that have come out between when you were young and now that you simply hadn’t seen yet at the time…

But what were your favorite movies then? When you were a kid, growing up? What movies did you drive your parents crazy over? Were they kids movies? Or, like me, did you luck into seeing some great movies at an early age and latch on to them, even though they were more for adults?

Whatever your answer is, let’s hear it! What movies did YOU love when you were little?

62 thoughts on “Tossin’ It Out There: What was YOUR Favorite Movie Growing Up?”

For someone as old as me (born in the 50s and raised during the 60s), two genres of film pretty much dominated my viewing habits early, and usually on the TV. It was the western and the sci-fi/monster movies. Two movies were emblematic of that time, and which made a distinct impression upon me, were Howard Hawks’ ‘Red River’ (played one Saturday night starting at 11:30 PM on the late-night ‘Fabulous 52′ television program) and catching the Americanized version of Ishirō Honda’s 1954 film, ‘Gojira’ (aka ‘Godzilla’) on one of the weekend programs that specialized in showing monster movies. Their influence is still felt in the drama, sci-fi, and horror style of film that I’ve carried on through my adult viewing.

Well, thank YOU le0pard for chiming in. Hell man, you’re citing a couple of good movies there, for sure. :D

In fact, I think a couple of comments up the chain somewhere I cite how I used to love Godzilla movies myself. The local station here in CT growing up used to play those movies every day after school let out and I watched a ton of them.

It is a hard question, but I remember always watching this Dutch animated movie “Als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel” a lot. It was shown every year on TV. As it took a while before we had a VCR there weren’t movies when I was really young that I could just keep rewatching.

My first film I saw at the cinema was, “The Land That Time Forgot” a starring Troy.. er Doug McClure! pure cheese, unrealistic models, cheap sets, and I knew it even at 7! and as for the acting!! I then saw King Kong the 76 remake, Close Encounters was, and is a favorite, but it was Star Wars, which totally blew me away! it was just.. big! mindblowing FX and just so different from anything I’d seen (I’ve now seen The Hidden Fortress, been to Tunisia etc.. been left dissillusioned by the Phantom Menace etc….) I also saw Star Trek TMP at the cinema, I still have a soft spot for that movie too!
But from an early age, (4 onwards!!) my Dad used to wake me up for the late night horror/sci-fi movies, usually on a friday night after the pub! he must have still been in his 20’s so still yet to be tainted by the woes of middle age responsibilities, and I think he just wanted to share! So I distinctly remember ‘Them” and countless other Black & White films, being scared, but enjoying the thrill all the same! and not sleeping much after !
We only had a B&W TV then, and remember Dad bringing home out 1st colour TV, a 20″ Sony Trinatron! Wow! colour!!, we were also one of the few who got a Betamax video recorder, while we all know the were better than VHS, we know what happened to them…. so I really wasn’t able to sit and rewatch videos, it was more TV shows that were shown regularly,
Doctor Who,
Hawaii 5-0,
Starsky & Hutch,
The 6 Million Dollar Man,
The Hulk
U.F.O
Space 1999.. This was a personal fav of mine, fantastic theme music, and I def had a crush on Maya!
The Fantastic Journey
Planet of The Apes
Logan’s Run
Blake’s 7
Battlestar Galactica
Star Trek
Mork & Mindy
Buck Rogers in the 21st C I also saw the movie version too
Salvage 1
The Tomorrow People.
The Muppet Show
Sesame Street
Banana Splits

That’s all I can think of, off the top of my head!
But these days, being a 42 yr old with a 2 1/2 yr old son, it’s completely different, he’s ravenous for films and as much as I want to sit and watch them again and again, I don’t want him turning into a couch potato! so we have to limit his viewing, and get him outdoors in the park everyday, and let him watch films as a treat, he loves the Muppet Show, so I do try and slip in some of the stuff I used to watch as a kid in as well, so I can indulge myself in nostalgia at the same time!

LOL. You pretty much listed my TV patterns out in full there Nik. Obviously, being of the same age, we’d probably be drawn to the same Fare.

There’s a couple there I’m in the dark on… I dont really even know what Salvage 1 and Banana Splits Are.

But the rest are great, I watched them as well. I had the pleasure of getting autographs from Richard Hatch of BSG (Apollo) and Gil Gerard and Erin Grey from Buck Rodgers. I pissed Erin Grey off by saying she needed a Twiki replica in her booth though, LOL. Gil Gerard was great though. We were totally joking around with each other. He was very cool.

Sounds like you were quite the Star Wars fans. I actually have difficulties with the franchise nowadays. Lucas has just endlessly taken the wrong action… makes it diffcult to look back on them fondly, which sucks.